Two college wrestling teams to battle at Snohomish High

After years of schools cutting their wreslting programs, the sport of college wrestling is nearly extinct in the state of Washington.

Snohomish H.S. coach Rob Zabel hopes to reverse that trend.

Zabel invited the Doane College and Simon Fraser University wrestling teams to host an exhibition match at Snohomish High on Friday at 7 p.m.

Zabel said the event is to raise awareness of the dearth college wrestling programs in the state of Washington. Yakima Valley Community College is the final non-club wrestling program in the state.

Because of that, products of the strong prep wrestling teams in the Puget Sound region like Lake Stevens, Snohomish and Edmonds-Woodway must go out of state to further their wrestling career. In fact five Wesco and a Cascade Conference wrestlers compete on either the Doane College of Simon Fraser rosters. The six local wrestlers are Doane’s Jesse Peterson (Lake Stevens), Greg Eagle (Snohomish), Zach Schut (Stanwood) and Carlos Toledano (Cedarcrest), and Simon Fraser’s Jake Elledge (Glacier Peak) and Morgan Smith (Meadowdale).

Doane’s coach Tyson Springer is also a Wesco product as a Monroe graduate.

Tickets to the event are $5 or $3 if for anyone wearing any kind of wrestling shirt (“They can come in a Hulk Hogan shirt. I don’t care,” Zabel joked).